Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-07-07
UNDERSIZED HORSES.
WHAT FRENCH CAVALRY OFFICERS
THOUGHT OF OUR HORSES. 1

4
Good and Bad Qualities of an American
Turn Out-Breeding for Speed, Regard
less of Beauty or Endurance-The
American Cob Waiting.
The turn out c'team" is beneath and Hequip-
age" above the subject, most characteristic
of an American city or town consists of an
undersized horse. harnessed to a spindling,
"side bar" wagon, and driven by self con-
fident person, holding, in all probability, a
big cigar in his mouth. Besides being small,
the steed is commonly waspish about the
waist, glove necked and narrow chested.
Moreover, he is apt to have a coarse head and
coarse ears, and it is almost certain that be
cannot be driven fast in safety to himself
without wearing a more or less varied assort-
ment of ~boots" upon his legs. Not seldom
also he carries heavy shoes or toe weights on
his fore feet, to keep him steady and level in
his gait, and these membranes unfit him
for long drive.
HIS GOOD QUALITIES.
His good points are chiefly powerful mus
cles, especially in his long and vigorous hind
legs, which give him a capacity for great
speed over short distance, and as a rule he
is intelligent. At first sight he would strike
any horseman unaccustomed to the breed as
an ugly, misshapen little beast, and this ap-
pearance is intensified by the overdraw check
which pulls up his head and points his nose
straight outward, thus depriving his neck of
whatever slight curve it may have had by
nature. Three years ago commission OF
cavalry officers was sent TO this country by
the French government to investigate the
character of our horses, perhaps with view
to importation for the use of their army In
the elaborate report v hich their officers made,
although they spoke very highly of our
Houyhnhnms in general, and declared that
one, member of the Mambrino family, was
the most beautiful horse they had ever seen,
yet they were much impressed by the under
sized and defective animals just described,
and they condemned them in vigorous terms
These trotting machines, as they may be
called, are the result of breeding entirely for
speed, regardless of beauty or of endurance
People in the middle and eastern states, at
least, have almost forgotten that a horse
ought to be round bodied, that his neck
should be curved, his head small, his ears well
cut, his nostrils full and his chest broad. OF
late years, and within a small circle, the pop
ularity of the cob has done something to i'm
prove what might be described as the horse Of
daily life. 1t is hardly necessary to say that
by "cob" is meant, not an animal of any par
ticular breed, but horse Of round, chunky,
solid pattern, somewhat short in the legs and
neck 1t is very indefinite term, and cobs
are of all sizes and of considerable variety in
shape. The ordinary cob, though not bril-
liant, is a very respectable beast, and if mod
erately well turned and properly curtailed,
he is recl1oned extremely genteel In Eng
land he has long been a favorite, both for
saddle and harness. Readers of English
novels will remember that bishop invariably
rides upon a cob. In some old verses quaint
writer enumerates the possessions that he
thinks would secure his happiness, including
among them, and not without reason,
An Arabic book to read, Norfolk cob to ride,
A house to live in shaded with trees, and near a
river side.
TRoTTERs AND TRoTTERs.
In certain breeds of our trotting horses we
have the material for a race of cobs superior
perhaps to the English, as being more speedy.
The ordinary road horse trotter is by no
means fair representative of the horses that
have succeeded upon the track To contest
seven or eight fast heats certainly requires
strength; and some families that have diStin-
guiShed themselves by endurance, add TO en-
durance speed, and to speed beauty.
There are trotters and trotters. Jay Eye
See, besides great muscular power, has bot
tom and courage, but he is undersized and
ugly. Maud s., on the other hand, is beauti-
fully shaped, and her head and ears, although
somewhat large, are finely cut and extremely
aristocratic. Frances Alexander, a horse
lately exported to Germany after success
full career upon the track, is a big, slashing
animal of the heroic type, fit to serve a
painter as a model of war horse. Wedge
wood again, his old competitor, has the es-
sential qualities of the cob with the addition
of great speed, for he is strong, gentle, cour-
ageous, and of well rounded shape
Clearly the American cob waits but the
man and the hour. Our trainers are better
than the English horse breakers, for they ap-
preciate more keenly the nervous, sensitive,
docile nature of the animal To horsemen of
the old school, and even of the present Eng
lish school, an account of the long and patient
process by which Maud s. was converted
from a wild and ungovernable to q safe and
gentle disposition, would read like a senti-
mental tale. What can be done to hasten the
development of the American cob? There is
in New York fourishing club of amateurs
devoted to the trotter, and similar one has
Just been started in Boston Why should
there not also be an association of those
numerous horse lovers who prefer buggy or
a dog cart to side bar wagon, and who
would rather drive fifteen miles in an hour
than 1,300 feet in thirty seconds-The
Epoch,